How a decades-old video game has helped me defeat the doomscroll

"Cutting back on doomscrolling must be one of the hardest new year resolutions to keep. Instinctively tapping on the usual suspects on your phone's home screen becomes a reflex, and vast quantities of money and user data have been specifically employed to keep you reaching for the phone, ingraining it into our work, leisure and social lives. You'll get no shame from me if you love your phone and have a healthy relationship with your apps, but I've found myself struggling lately."

"This year, I'm attempting to cut back on screen time sort of. I'm replacing the sleek oblong of my smartphone with something a little more fuzzy and nostalgic. In an attempt to dismantle my bad habit, I'm closing the feeds of instant updates and instead carrying around a Game Boy Advance. I've been playing Pokemon FireRed, a remake of the very first Pokemon games, which turn 30 this month. Even this refreshed version is more than two decades old."

"Improving your digital wellbeing doesn't necessarily mean cutting out screen time completely. Not all screens are created equal. I'm hoping that swapping one screen for another isn't like Indiana Jones switching out the golden idol with a big bag of sand, only for the booby trap boulder to crush me all the same. I'd not played Pokemon regularly since 2006's Pokemon Diamond on the Nintendo DS, which was my introduction to the franchise."

Doomscrolling is difficult to stop because habitual tapping on home-screen apps is reinforced by vast sums of money and user data designed to keep people reaching for their phones. Substituting devices can be an alternative to eliminating screens entirely. One substitution used is carrying a Game Boy Advance and playing Pokemon FireRed, a remake of the original Pokemon games now marking thirty years and still over two decades old. Lower-stimulus, nostalgic handheld play can close instant-update feeds and offer a different form of digital leisure. Long gaps since earlier Pokemon play make revisiting Kanto and the original 151 Pokemon feel appealing and novel.

Read at www.theguardian.com